


Worlds Apart

by chase_gibson



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, F/M, Hunk Appreciation Big Bang 2018
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-24
Updated: 2018-07-24
Packaged: 2019-06-12 06:42:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15334098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chase_gibson/pseuds/chase_gibson
Summary: A chance encounter and a magic necklace brings two strangers together in a singular dream world. Romance blossoms, but things are not as simple as they seem.





	Worlds Apart

**Author's Note:**

> Mega super props to my beta and wife Ladymac111 for bringing this story to the next level.
> 
> Jay made art to go with this story. You can see it [here.](https://jaylovsfandoms.tumblr.com/post/176238948952/worlds-apart-by-hastyquickbeam)

Hunk was late for work again. He hurried down the sidewalk towards the bakery, dodging people in business suits and the occasional gawking tourist. He checked his watch as he entered a small park and cut a direct line through the center of it; the park was less crowded than the sidewalks, so he was able to move faster.

He looked down at his watch again and when he looked up a girl had appeared out of nowhere and was too close to avoid. They collided with a crash, and the pile of books and notebooks she was carrying exploded out onto the ground.

Before Hunk could even apologize, the girl was down on the ground scooping up her things. “Let me help you!” he exclaimed, leaning down next to her. By this point she had already collected most of her things, so Hunk wasn’t able to help much.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” she said suddenly, as if she had just remembered this was what you were supposed to say.

“No, I’m sorry. I’m sure it was my fault, I wasn’t paying attention,” Hunk assured her. Their met eyes for a moment, and suddenly Hunk wasn’t quite so annoyed with her. There was something about the gleaming green eyes in that small face which captivated him.

She stood up, and so did Hunk; they held eye contact for a moment, but then the girl turned and hurried away. Hunk had been trying to think of something to say, but now it was too late. He was watching her go when he noticed a glint on the ground; he bent down and picked up a necklace with a gold pendant shaped like half of a heart, inlaid with green decorations of swirling lines and a lion’s face. It was so spellbinding that he just stared at it for a few moments, not considering where it had come from -- and then he remembered.

“Hey! Your necklace!” he shouted,, but she was nowhere to be seen. How had she disappeared so quickly? He thought for a hectic moment about trying to follow and find her, but he had no idea where she had gone, and he was still late for work.

He stood there, locked in indecision; he wanted to return the girl’s necklace, he wanted to see her again … but not incurring the wrath of his employer was more important. He turned towards the bakery and hurried off, slipping the necklace into his pocket.

 

He had only made it a few blocks before he started to worry about the necklace: what if it slipped out of his pocket and got lost? What if it got scratched by his keys? He decided it would be safer to wear it.

He stopped and stepped to the side of the sidewalk, out of the flow of foot traffic. The bakery could wait; this was important.  He wasn’t quite sure  _ why  _ it was important, but he just knew that it was. 

He undid the clasp on the necklace, put it around his neck, and started working on closing the clasp, which was more difficult than expected. He had no idea how to do something like this, he didn’t wear necklaces. Not that there was anything wrong with guys wearing necklaces, he thought hurriedly, correcting even though it was only inside his head -- it just wasn’t something he did.

_ This is stupid, _ he thought, after two minutes of fiddling with it. He slipped it back into his pocket and decided to ask a coworker at the bakery for help.

When he finally walked into the bakery, the boss gave him a sour look but didn’t say anything. Hunk gratefully hurried to the back of the shop, where he would be making cookies. He found Joel already portioning out the dough

“Where have you been?” Joel asked, irritated. “If you keep it up like this, Griselda will actually get pissed at you. You don’t want that.”

Hunk sighed, frustrated.  “You’re right, I don’t. But, listen, will you help me with this necklace?”

“Necklace? You don’t wear necklaces.”

“I don’t. But I met this girl.”

Joel’s face brightened. “You found a girl! Hunk, that’s fantastic!”

For some reason, Joel was always on him about being single.  “No, not like that. I bumped into her in the park and she dropped all her things and accidentally left this necklace behind. She disappeared before I could give it to her, so I held onto it and I’m gonna try to find her to give it back.”

“Oh, is that all,” Joel said, clearly disappointed. “Well, don’t worry about it. Eventually the ladies will catch on to how amazing you are.”

“I’m not worried about that, I just want to get the necklace back to its owner. I want to wear it so it will be safe. Will you help and put it on me?”

“It sounds like you want to keep it for yourself, but okay, I’ll help you put it on.”

Joel wiped his hands on his apron and walked around behind him, and Hunk gratefully lifted the necklace to his neck and handed the ends to Joel, who made quick work of the clasp. Hunk sighed as the necklace fell safely into place, a comforting, heavy weight around his neck.

“Why do care so much about this necklace? It’s just some lost necklace.  It’s not even that nice.”

“I don’t care that much. It just feels important, I guess.”

“Well, now it’s safe, and you’ve got cookies to make.”

“Oh yeah, I’ll take over now. Thanks for covering for me. I’ll bet that’s part of why I didn’t get shouted at.”

“Oh, it’s the whole reason,” Joel said, with a little smirk. “I have to get busy with the bread.”

Hunk’s shift at the bakery went by at a snail’s pace. He kept thinking about the necklace, and the girl who had appeared so briefly. The more he thought about it, the more he realized something didn’t feel right. He hadn’t been that distracted when he ran into her, and he had only looked down at his watch for a moment. There had been no one in front of him. How had she appeared so suddenly?

Finally it was time to clean up and close the bakery. It took longer than usual, but Hunk figured he had no right to complain, given how late he had been. He wiped down the counters, wrapped up the day-old bread, and set aside the loaves for tomorrow.

Once Joel had locked up and they said goodbye, he walked home slowly, keeping out a clear eye for anyone who might come close to colliding with him. When he reached the park, he couldn’t help stopping and staring at the place where he had collided with the girl, the place where he had found the necklace. He almost thought about waiting here and hoping the girl would come back, but he was tired and it was time to get home.

 

Lance was watching TV when Hunk got home.

“Look, I found something today” Hunk said.

Lance turned his head halfway to him, half interested. “What is it?”

“Some kind of necklace,” said Hunk, leaning towards Lance and dangling the necklace at him.

Lance turned fully away from the TV now, and took the green pendant in his fingers. “Wow, this is beautiful! But why did you get a such a pretty necklace? Is there a girl you’re not telling me about?”

“There’s no girl. Well, not how you’re thinking. I bumped into someone in the park and she dropped all her things, but she was in such a hurry to pick them up that I guess she missed this necklace. By the time I noticed it she had disappeared and it was too late to give it back.”

Lance raised his eyebrows, still studying the pendant.  “What are you going to do with it?”

“Try to get it back to its owner somehow. Do you have any ideas for how we could find her?”

“Don’t ask me,you’re the clever one.”

Hunk sighed. “I guess there’s always Craigslist, and I can make a post on Facebook and ask people to share it around. I’ll also put a poster up in the park. That’s about all I can think of. For now I’m going to put it somewhere safe.”

When he got to his room, he felt like he needed to put it somewhere special. Something so beautiful couldn’t get put just anywhere, even if it was safe. Eventually he settled on a prominent spot on his desk, next to pictures of his family. He set the pendant out just so, then went back to the living room to join Lance.

Hunk was determined to be on time to the bakery tomorrow, so he only watched a little bit of TV with Lance before he went to bed early.

 

Hunk woke up early, with plenty of time to eat breakfast before heading out, and he left early enough that he would have time to look at the park more closely on the way, now that it was daylight.

He got his things together and turned to the door of his room. But something in his chest, a weird pulling sensation, told him that he shouldn’t leave yet, and his thoughts turned to the necklace. Would it be safe in the apartment? It would be safer to wear it, but he didn’t want to wake up Lance to help him put it on. But this felt important, so he decided to try it himself. He examined the clasp while it sat on his desk, and thought it looked simple enough. He tried again to put it on and surprisingly got it securely fastened on the first try.

When he got to to the park he stood in the center, right where he had collided with the girl. As he stood there, he almost thought she would appear again, so he could give the necklace back. He stood waiting, barely breathing, half expecting her to appear directly in from of him. He could have easily lost track of time there, watching the spot, but he forced himself to keep an eye on his watch, so he left before he wanted to in the interest of being on time to work.

He walked into the bakery, and Griselda didn’t smile at him, but at least she didn’t glare at him either. Hunk gave her a perfunctory  _ hello  _ before walked to the back and clocked in, and got started making the chocolate chip cookie dough. It felt good to settle into a familiar routine. He focused on the dough, and didn’t think about the necklace.

By the time he was portioning  the cookies onto the baking sheet, though, his thoughts turned to the necklace again. He almost thought that the pendant felt warm on his chest, but that was crazy, he must have been just imagining it. He wondered if the lion meant something? The inlaid design was so beautiful, and that kind of thing seemed to always have hidden messages. He decided he would take time to look at it on his break.

“You’re wearing that necklace again?” Joel asked.

Hunk jumped. “Don’t sneak up on me like that!”

“I didn’t. I even said hello already. Weren’t you listening?”

“I guess not.” He took a deep breath, trying to slow the beating of his heart. “I’ve been kind of distracted today.”

“You sure are. So the necklace. Why are you wearing it again?”

“I just thought it would be safer if I kept it on me.”

“Well, you should keep wearing it. I like you with a necklace.”

Which struck Hunk as an odd thing for his coworker to say.  “I’m not wearing it to look good.”

“Then it’s a perk. Have you had any luck finding the owner?”

“No, not yet.”

“Well, good luck,” said Joel, turning away to start his own work making cake batter.

Hunk went back to his cookies, but he was still distracted. He was thinking about the girl now. She was pretty, and something in her eyes had looked intelligent. He didn’t want to admit it to himself, but maybe he wanted to find her because he simply wanted to see her. No, that wasn’t it. He just wanted to give back the necklace.

“Hunk! The cookies! Didn’t you hear the timer?”

“What?” Hunk blinked as Joes stared him down. “Oh, I guess I didn’t hear it. Sorry, I’m still distracted.”

“Hurry up! They might not be burned to a crisp yet.”

Hunk snatched the oven mitts and yanked the cookies out of the oven. Too late: they were more black then brown on the edges. “Oh shit, Griselda is gonna kill me”

“Quick, throw them out before she notices.”

“Right,” Hunk said, peeling up the parchment to drop the chunks of burned cookie into the trash.

“Hunk, what’s with you today?”

“I don’t know.”  He wished he did, this wasn’t like him. “Well, I kinda do. It’s this necklace. I keep thinking about it. And the girl it belongs to.”

“Aha, so this is about a girl,” said Joel with a sidelong glance.

“No, it’s not like that, I told you. I just bumped into her and I want to give her necklace back.”

“Whatever you say, Hunk. Anyway, you’d better get back to the cookies. Do you need to make another batch?”

“Yes,” said Hunk, trying not to look as dejected as he felt. He gathered his ingredients and started mixing, but this batch didn’t feel good to make, and he was kicking himself for burning the last batch. Usually he never burned anything, he was very careful with the timing. But he was also trying not to think about the necklace, which just made him think about it even more, which made him even more frustrated. Fortunately, despite his bad mood, he was able to bake the second batch of cookies properly, and he didn’t make any more mistakes that day.

 

About a week had gone by, and despite his poster in the park and his Facebook friends sharing his post, he still had no word from the girl about her necklace. He was still wearing the necklace everyday, unable to leave it behind in his apartment. At first Lance had been incredulous to find that Hunk was wearing the necklace so much, but by now he seemed to have gotten used to it, and hardly mentioned it anymore.

But Hunk found himself thinking about the necklace more and more. While he was eating dinner one evening, the idea popped into his head that he should wear the necklace to bed at night. Clearly this made no sense; it was perfectly safe on his desk when he was home. How could wearing it at night make it any safer? If anything, it put it in danger of him sweating on it, or getting tangled, although Hunk had a weird feeling that this necklace couldn’t be harmed by something as simple as sweat or some stress on the chain

Maybe he wanted to wear it because of the girl. The more he thought about her, the more he felt like there was some special connection between them. He wanted to feel close to her, and wearing the necklace was the only way he had to do that. Maybe that’s why he wanted to wear it at night.

When he had his pajamas on and was ready for bed, he snuck the necklace over to his bedside table, deftly put it on, then quickly hid himself under the sheets. He didn’t want Lance seeing this, it was embarrassing. Lance had finally stopped mentioning the necklace, but Hunk knew he would start all over again if he found out about this. Hunk didn’t really think that Lance would ever come into his room at night, but it felt good to be careful.

The next morning he was vaguely disappointed that he hadn’t dreamed about the girl. In fact, he didn’t remember any dreams at all, which was unusual for him. He went about his morning without taking the necklace off, and as he was collecting his things to go to the bakery he reached for his desk to put it on. When he saw it wasn’t there he had a momentary panic before realizing it was already on him. He took a deep breath of relief and continued on his way.

 

A week had past since Hunk had begun wearing the necklace all the time. By now it was habit for him to go to bed wearing the necklace instead of taking it off, but he still felt kind of embarrassed about it. He always hoped that Lance wouldn’t come in and see it, even though he knew Lance would never just walk in while he was sleeping. He pulled up the covers his chin to hide the necklace, like he always did, and let himself fall asleep.

When he opened his eyes, he was standing on nothing and a glowing yellow fog enveloped him. At first he just stood there and stared. Then he realized there was something in front of him; he couldn’t see it, but he knew it was there. He stepped forward.

For a few steps, nothing happened, then the yellow glow bloomed into impossibly bright white. His eyes were burning, but his feet kept moving forward. Five steps later and the brightness began to diminish into gray. Vague forms began to appear, and then it all resolved into a world that took his breath away.

There was a lavender sky with light pink clouds, and an orange-ish sun shone down on a landscape that was impossibly lush. Trees with rich purple leaves were dotted upon hills covered with smooth green grass; so smooth that it must have been mowed, but Hunk saw from the grass up close the the tips of the leaves were intact. Apparently it just grew that way.

Off in the misty distance he saw a gleaming white castle that must have been made from stone, except that the spires were improbably tall and narrow. Somewhat closer to him was a gigantic tree, if something that huge could be called a tree at all. Hunk couldn’t really tell the distance and the scale of it, but it seemed more like a monumentally oversized statue of a tree rather than a thing which could have actually grown. It had leaves of deeper purple than all the other trees, interspersed with patches of light pink leaves which resembled the clouds in hue.

At this point Hunk began to suspect that he was dreaming -- lucid dreaming wasn’t entirely new to him, but it didn’t happen often. If that’s what this was, he might as well enjoy himself. There was a path a short ways ahead of him and he made for it, his bare feet swishing through the grass.

He suddenly realized he was wearing his pajamas, which embarrassed him for a moment before he remembered that this was a dream.  It’s not like he was going to run into another actual person.

He set off down the path in the direction of the distant castle. He didn’t think he was likely to make it there before he woke up, but he wanted to try.

A ways further down the path Hunk noticed someone  approaching him. He waved and said hello, but the person didn’t respond, and suddenly slowed their pace. Hunk stopped and stared; on closer inspection, something was definitely off. The person had alarmingly pointy ears, and a glint of something on their skin next to their eyes.

While the person cautiously approached Hunk, he had time to wonder whether they were human. They looked to be a woman, or would be if they were human. They kept walking closer and stopped a few steps away from it. And then they started talking, but it was a language Hunk didn’t understand.

“What are you saying?” he cut in. “Do you speak English? Can you understand me?”

They said something more, and Hunk could tell they didn’t understand him either. They looked at each other for a long moment, then the person shrugged and started walking past Hunk.

Hunk thought of asking them to stay and help him, but he didn’t think they could be helpful, and anyway he didn’t seem to be in any real danger, since this was just a dream. He set off again towards the tree.

 

After Hunk had walked for some time, he noticed a girl sitting on a stump next to the path. He was relieved to see that she appeared to be completely human, but she also seemed to be lost or confused -- and there was something familiar about her. He struggled to remember for a moment, and then it hit him: this was the girl from the park, and he was wearing her necklace. He took off at a jog towards her.

“Hey, your necklace,” he called.  As he jogged he undid the clasp, but as soon as he did there was a painful jerk from the center of his chest and he woke up in his bed, nauseated, head sore, heart pounding, and the necklace sitting on his chest in front of him.

Had he been dreaming that whole time? It had felt so real, not like an ordinary dream. And how had the necklace gotten off? He remembered taking it off in the dream, but why would be off in real life? Had this been like sleep walking? Or, sleep … undressing?  Was that a thing?He wasn’t sure.

He sat up and immediately regretted it as his head gave a vigorous throb. He lay back down and put the necklace back on, carefully refastening the clasp. Somehow he thought it would make him feel better, and somehow it did. He suddenly felt very tired and before he knew it he was falling asleep again.

He opened his eyes and found himself back in the dream world. The girl was there again, looking surprised to see him. He stared at her, lost for words.

“Where did you go?” she finally asked.

“I don’t know. I just woke up when I took the necklace off. Then I put the necklace back on and I guess I fell asleep again, so here I am.” Then he remembered whose necklace he was wearing. “I have your necklace! I won’t try to take it off again, but here, have a look at it.”

“What necklace?”  She looked confused.

“The one you lost in the park.”

“I never lost a necklace. But I have your necklace.”  

Now it was Hunk’s turn to be confused. “What necklace?”

She pulled it out from under the collar of her shirt, a yellow pendant on a chain. “I found it in my things after I got to class. I assumed it was yours, and I tried to find you to give it back, but I couldn’t find you.”

“I never lost a necklace.”

“Then where did they come from?” she asked, looking confused.

“I don’t know.”

They watched each other uncertainly, neither one sure what to do next. After some time she looked away, as though she had just remembered it was impolite to stare.

“What do we do now?” asked Hunk.

“I suppose we should try to find the real owner of these necklaces.”

“Yeah, but how? We know literally nothing about them.”

“Now that there’s two of us, maybe we will come up with something,” she said, sounding uncertain.

“Wait a second,” said Hunk, “how do I know that any of what you’re saying is true? I could be just dreaming all of this.” He wasn’t ready to admit that he suspected this was somehow more that a dream.

“Who are you calling just a dream? If anything this is  _ my _ dream.”

Hunk looked at her, feeling uncomfortable under her aggressive gaze. “I guess there’s no way of knowing.” He sat down on the ground next to her, and looked at the great tree. After a while he glanced at the girl and saw that she was looking at the tree also.

“I’m Hunk,” he said.

“Oh right, names. I’m Pidge.”

“Cool.”

They sat there for a while, saying nothing, because what was there to say? The sun moved gradually across the sky, and the shadows on the tree shifted and revealed new shades of pink.

It happened slowly, but Hunk noticed it suddenly: everything in the world was fading to white. Hunk felt panic building in his chest.

“Hey! What’s happening?” he said, trying not to shout.

“I don’t know,” Pidge said, looking around. “Everything’s going white.”

“I know. But why?”

Before she had time to answer, she and the whole world had vanished into bright white light. Then the light started changing to yellow, and he felt himself losing consciousness. He tried to stay awake, but it was impossible, he felt like the world was drifting away from him.

And then he woke up in his bed. It was bright outside and his alarm was blaring.

 

After a normal day at the bakery, Hunk was impatient to get to sleep. There was something irresistible about the place he had visited in his dream; he knew it had to be just a dream, but even so he was desperate to return there.

When he did finally get to bed he lay awake for a long time. He was so eager to see the world again that he was too excited to actually fall asleep. Instead he lay there thinking about everything he had seen last night, and especially about the girl. He hoped he would see her again, too. He had been thinking about her so long when he was trying to return the necklace, so it was incredibly satisfying to have finally met her, even though the necklace wasn’t hers after all.

But of course that was all just a dream, wasn’t it? The real Pidge could be out there in the real world hoping to get her necklace back. In fact the real Pidge probably wasn’t even called Pidge. That was just some random name he had dreamed, and not even a real name. He supposed he would have to keep searching in the real world for the girl who owned the necklace.

As he was wracking his brain for new ways to find her, he started to get sleepy, and then finally he was asleep. Then there was the yellow fog and the blinding white light and that fantastic world he had seen the night before.

He noticed he was in the same place he had been before, and was surprised to see Pidge right next to him.

“So I’m having the same dream again,” said Pidge, not looking at him.

“This isn’t your dream, it’s mine,” said Hunk stubbornly.

“You can keep thinking that, but I know when I’m dreaming.”

Hunk sighed. “Well, no matter whose dream it is, here we are. What should we do?”

“What is there to do here?”

“I was going to go and see that huge tree. It’s amazing, isn’t it?”

“It’s a big tree.” Pidge sounded unimpressed. “But okay, I’ll come with you. Since there isn’t really anything else to do”

They walked along together, Hunk making a point of walking slowly so Pidge could keep up on her short legs -- she was much shorter than him, now that she was standing she barely came up to his shoulder.

“You don’t have to walk so slowly,” said Pidge, marching out in front of him. “I’m short, not slow.”

“Fair enough.” Hunk sped up to match her pace.

They walked in silence for a while before Hunk spoke again. “What did you do to try to finder the owner of the necklace you found?”

“A bunch of things. Facebook, Craigslist, asked everyone I know. I even put up a notice on my school’s bulletin board, but It got covered up by like twenty concert posters in the space of two days.”

“I did those things too, except I put up my paper notice in the bakery where I work, and one in the park. You go to school?”

“Yeah, I’m in college. Majoring in computer science.”

“Computer science sounds interesting. I work in a bakery and I mostly just make cookies.”

“Someone has to supply the world with cookies. I mean, where would we be without cookies?”

Hunk chuckled. “Good point.”

At that point they seemed to be out of things to say again, but Hunk had enjoyed talking to her, and it felt comfortable walking along with her. But there was something strange about the tree: as they walked towards it, it seemed to get farther away. Maybe it was a trick of the light, but Hunk wasn’t sure.

They hadn’t made it to the tree when the world started to turn to white. This time Hunk knew what to expect, so he wasn’t scared. “I guess I’ll see you next time,” he said.

“Hope so,” said Pidge as she disappeared into the blinding white light.

As Hunk drifted out of the dream, his heart warmed with gladness that she had said that.

 

Each of the next five nights, Hunk went to the necklace dream and met Pidge. Together they kept walking towards the tree. They still didn’t seem to be getting any closer, but that didn’t matter because just chatting with Pidge was a great way to pass the time. Pidge talked a lot about her classes classes; Hunk rarely understood what she was saying, and he suspected she was much better at doing computer science than explaining it, but he didn’t mind listening and she obviously enjoyed talking about it.  He loved how excited she got about it, how she could talk and talk and hold his attention even if he was hopelessly lost.

He told her about his work at the bakery, and the different schools of thought on the proper way to mix cookie dough, and how to know whether different types of cookies were done. Hunk mostly used a timer, but ovens were finicky things, and you never really knew unless you paid attention to the color on the edges. Hunk talked about Lance and how he could always cheer him up after a rough day. Pidge talked about her friends at school, and complained about the annoying things her roommate did.

 

On that fifth night, after they’d walked and talked for a bit and there was a lull in the conversation, Hunk had an idea about the necklaces.

“Hey, maybe if we take a close look at the necklaces we can get some idea of where they came from.”

Pidge shrugged.  “I doubt it, but sure, we can try.”

Hunk held out the small green pendant on his necklace for Pidge to see, and she pulled hers out too, stepping right up next to him.

“Hm… that’s interesting,” Pidge said, looking back and forth between the two.

“What is?” Hunk asked, breathless..

“Your necklace looks like it fits with mine.”

Hunk looked at the two necklaces.  They were roughly the same shape, a kind of odd oblong thing with an irregular edge, and pointy at the bottom.  They were both inlaid with similar lion figures; Hunk’s pendant was green with a gold inlay, and Pidge’s was silver with a yellow inlay.  With them next to each other, they kind of looked like they’d fit together into a heart shape.

“Maybe we should try to put them together,” Hunk suggested.

“Sure.”

Hunk had to lean down and they had to put their heads close together to make the necklaces reach as they held them out; Hunk could feel the warmth of Pidge’s breath on his cheek, and a tingle went through his spine.

They set the pendants together, and the two merged. At the intersection between them a brilliant red shined out, like molten metal, and they both pulled their hands back in alarm, but the two pieces were stuck together.

They both stared as the merged pendant hung from the two chains. Then it lifted up, levitating in a frankly uncanny way, before it rotated one half turn and shone with such brilliant white light that Hunk had to turn away. He thought about looking back, but then felt a weight land on his chest. Now he looked down and saw that a pendant was hanging from his chain. It was silver with yellow inlay, shaped like a full heart. He looked over to Pidge and saw that she had a similar heart shaped pendant with green inlaid on gold. Both pendants had lion shaped decorations just like the originals.

“That was - wow,” said Hunk, struggling for any words at all.

“Yeah,” said an awestruck Pidge.

Hunk picked up his pendant, but it was uncomfortably warm to the touch.  “Ow! It’s hot.”

“Mine too,” said Pidge, touching the green pendant gingerly with her fingertips. “You know, it’s funny, ever since I met you I kinda wished I had the green pendant because green is my favorite color.”

“And yellow is my favorite color,” said Hunk. “I didn’t even think of that..”

“Do you think that’s why they changed?” asked Pidge, and she seemed a little weirded out.

Hunk was feeling kind of uncomfortable about what they’d just witnessed, even though he tried to remind himself that this was all a dream.  “What do we do now?” he asked, trying to change the subject.

“Keep walking?”

“Suppose so.”

So they kept walking towards the tree that never got closer. Neither of them said anything. Hunk was stuck on thinking about the necklaces, and he was sure Pidge was too.

After a while walking, the world started fading to the familiar white color.

“See you next time,” said Hunk.

“Hope so,” Pidge replied cheerfully.

Which made Hunk smile every time.

Hunk woke up and went about his routine in the morning. He didn’t notice until he looked in the mirror that he was wearing a yellow pendant shaped like a full heart.

 

“So clearly, what happens here happens in the real world,” Pidge said as they walked down the path together the next evening.

“Seems like.”

“It’s amazing. In a weird way.”

“I know,” said Hunk. “I’ve been thinking about it all day. I could barely focus at the bakery today, I almost burned a batch of cookies.”

“I couldn’t pay attention in my lecture at all. I hope it wasn’t too important.”

“It’s just school,” said Hunk helpfully.

“While I was not listening to my lecture, I was thinking about all this, and I had an idea,” Pidge said hesitantly.

“What is it?”

“Do you,” she paused, “do you want to meet in real life?”

Hunk was taken aback. Now that he thought about it, he did want to, but he would never have had the nerve to say so. “Yeah, I would like that.”

Pidge breathed a sigh of relief. “I thought we could meet in the park. You know, where we first bumped into each other. That way we both know where to find it. Do you have time tomorrow?”

“Do you mean the day when we wake up this morning, or the next day?”

“I mean the day that starts with this morning.”

“Yes, I’m free after seven.”

“Me too!” She nearly squealed, and although she caught herself and sobered quickly, Hunk was delighted at her excitement.

“So let’s meet there at eight?”

“It’s a date.” Pidge said, and then seemed to realize what she had said. “I don’t mean it’s like an actual date, I mean we’re not dating at all. I just mean there is a date and time. You know what I mean, right?”

Hunk laughed, and his heart was light. “I know what you mean. I’ll be there.”

That night, Hunk arrived at the park ten minutes early, and then waited fifteen minutes. What was wrong? It wasn’t like Pidge to be late. Was it? He actually didn’t know if it was, because they always just happened to appear in the necklace world at the same time. Well, five minutes late wasn’t all the much. He would keep waiting for her.

At twenty minutes after eight, Hunk was starting to really get worried. Had something happened to her?

At 8:45 he was angry. Here he had thought they were starting to be good friends, and she goes and stands him up. How could she do that to him? He almost left right then, but the last bit of hope in his chest told him to stay until nine.

At nine he turned to go, but couldn’t bear to leave. He waited another ten minutes, and still no Pidge. Finally he was out of patience, and he let his worry turn to annoyance and stomped all the way home.

When he got home, he slammed the front door hard enough that Lance noticed, looking up at him with a start from his spot on the couch.

“Dude, are you okay?”

“She didn’t show up,” Hunk said angrily.

“Who didn’t show up?”

Hunk remembered then that he hadn’t told any of this to Lance, and he didn’t have it in him now. “No one. It’s nothing,” he said in a flat voice.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” said Lance, “but it’s obviously something. What’s wrong, man?”

“Nothing. It’s just. I need to. Something. In my room.” He  turned on his heel and left Lance staring after him.

Hunk was so upset he almost didn’t want to go to the necklace world that night. He tried to go to bed without the necklace, but found he couldn’t sleep, and that he just didn’t feel right without it. He pushed himself reluctantly out of bed and grabbed the necklace.

Once he was back under the covers with the necklace securely around his neck, he fell asleep in no time.

 

When Pidge and the necklace world materialized around him, he took the chance to speak first.

“Where were you today?” Hunk asked, not masking his frustration.

“I was at the park. Where were you?” said Pidge, sounding even more exasperated.

“You can’t have been there, I was there for an hour and I didn’t see you.”

“Did you go at the wrong time?”

“No! I was there at eight, just like we said. I was even ten minutes early!”

“Hunk, you were there at eight  _ pm _ , right? Not am?”

“Of course I was. Obviously it was eight pm. Why would we meet in the morning?”

“This doesn’t make sense.” Pidge’s nostrils flared and her cheeks were turning red. “You must be lying. Why are you lying to me?”

“No! I’m not lying. There must be some explanation for this. But you’re not wrong about it not making sense.”

They stared at each other, and Hunk waited for her to crack and say she was the one who was lying. But she didn’t, and the angry silence stretched.

“There must be some explanation for this,” he finally said, trying to sound stubborn. Pidge glared at him, then looked to the side as if she was thinking.

”What is it?”

She looked directly at him. “Who’s the President?”

“What?”

“Just tell me: who is the President of the United States?”

“Sasha Obama.”

“Oh, fuck.” Pidge’s eyes widened in sudden terror.

”What’s wrong?”

She had to take a moment to find her voice. “The President of the United States is John Jackson.”

What in the world?  “What are you talking about? He lost the election. Are you lying to me again? I really don’t understand why you’re doing this.”

“I’m not  _ lying _ ,” Pidge insisted, “I’m telling the truth. It’s like you said, there has to be an explanation. I know the explanation now, but it’s … pretty crazy.”

“How can there be an explanation for this? And what does it have to with President Obama?”

“How can I even put this,” Pidge said, raking a hand through her hair, and looking around helplessly.

“Well, I think you’d better start explaining, because you’re kind of scaring me right now.”

“I was trying to think how we could both be in the same place at the same time and not see each other. And then a crazy idea hit me. What if this necklace world actually exists as an alternate world, and what if there are other alternate worlds?”

“What are you saying?”

“You and I … we’re from two different parallel universes. In my universe, John Jackson is President, and in yours it’s Sasha Obama.”

He shook his head, swallowing down the bundle of nerves in his throat.  “But that’s impossible.”

“Is it? If the necklace world is possible, why not this too?”

All he could do was stare at her, trying to make sense of it. Was this possible? Were they from different universes? He didn’t really know what was real any more. Maybe it was true. But then…

“So ... does this mean we can never see each other in the real world?”

“I think so.”

Hunk felt tears starting to well in his eyes, but he wasn’t about to give up. “I saw you in the park. We bumped into each other and found the necklaces. That means there must be a way for us to see each other.”

“Not necessarily,” said Pidge miserably, “those could have been the alternate reality versions of us.”

“What?”

“Like, maybe there’s a you in my world, and a me in yours.  Maybe that’s who we saw, and it just happened to happen to both of us.”

“I don’t like it.”

Pidge frowned and crossed her arms. “Do you have a better idea?”

“Fuck,” groaned Hunk. “This is messed up.”

They stood there for a while looking at each other, until Hunk got uncomfortable and turned to the tree, just to have something to look at. After an extended silence, Hunk felt the need to speak again.

“We still have here. I mean we can still see each other here.”

“That’s true,” Pidge said carefully.

“I suppose we could keep walking towards the tree.”

“Suppose so,” said Pidge in a flat voice.

So they walked. Hunk didn’t say anything, because what was there to say? They hadn’t gotten very far when the world started going white again.

“See you next time,” said Hunk, continuing their routine even though his throat was so tight he thought he could barely speak.

“Hope so,” said Pidge, her voice still flat.

Then the world turned to white and she disappeared.

 

When Hunk woke up and went out to the living room, he was surprised to see Lance sleeping on the couch, slumped to one side of a pillow.

“Hey, Lance, wake up. What are you doing out here?”

Lance groaned and rolled over towards the back of the couch. Hunk shook his shoulder firmly; he knew it wasn’t easy to wake Lance up.

Finally Lance waved an arm at him. “Wha… what are you doing? Where am I?”

“You’re on the couch, Lance. Why are you on the couch?”

“I was waiting for you to come home. Why didn’t you tell me you were leaving? Why didn’t you wake me up when you got home?”

“What?” said Hunk -- he had no idea what Lance was talking about.

“I tried to get you last night because I had a low blood sugar and had that ‘everything is doom forever’ feeling and I needed some hugs, but you didn’t answer when I knocked and when I went in, you weren’t there.”

“You went into my room?” asked Hunk, shocked that Lance would invade his privacy like that.

“Yeah, I did. I really needed hugs, okay?”

“Are you sure I wasn’t there? Because--“

“Yes, I’m sure. I poked at the blankets and everything. You weren’t there.”

“Oh. Yeah, I -- I was out last night.” It felt awful to lie, but somehow telling the truth didn’t seem like an option. Had his physical body actually disappeared into the necklace world? How could he even begin to tell Lance something like that?

“Hunk, where were you?” asked Lance after an awkward silence.

Hunk wasn’t good at lying on a good day, and he had no time to think of an answer. He figured all he could do to tell the truth. Well, some of it.

“I … I was out with a girl.”

“A girl! I knew there was a girl! Hunk that’s fantastic!” Lance suddenly didn’t seem upset anymore, and had one of his great smiles on. “Wait, does this have something to do with that necklace?”

Again, only the truth would do. “Yeah, it does.”

“So, who is she?” Lance asked, nearly bouncing off the couch with anticipation.

“Um, I kinda don’t wanna talk about it?”

Lance looked hurt. “Come on buddy, you know I’d tell you all about it if I was going out with a girl. Heck, especially if I was sneaking around with a girl at night.”

“If you were telling me, why would you be sneaking around?”

“Maybe because we have to keep it secret because her parents don’t approve of me. We’d have to sneak around like Romeo and Juliet.” Lance shook his head. “Wait, no. We’re not talking about me, we’re talking about you and your secret girl. Why won’t you tell me anything?

“I just -- I don’t wanna talk about it, okay?”

Lance was quiet for a moment. “Yeah, okay,” he said, but he didn’t look like he was okay with it. “I guess I can’t really make you kiss and tell.”

 

Hunk was barely on time to the bakery. The encounter with Lance had really thrown him off, and he was still reeling from the discovery that he could apparently never see Pidge in real life.

An hour into his shift, he started to get sleepy. On his first fifteen-minute break, he went into the back storeroom and sat down on a crate. He was just going to close his eyes for five minutes, he wasn’t going to fall asleep -- but it happened anyway.

Before he knew what was happening, he was in the necklace world. He was sitting on a log and Pidge was standing next to him, blinking.

“Oh, hey,” she said, “I didn’t expect to see you here. Actually I didn’t expect to be here, either. Aren’t you at work?

“Yeah, I am said Hunk, and he was definitely starting to panic “I must have dozed off on break. This is really bad, I need to wake up.”

“What’s the big deal? Someone will find you wake you up. It’ll be sort of embarrassing, but whatever.”

“No, look, there’s something I haven’t had a chance to tell you yet. When I come to the necklace world, my body disappears in real life.”

She blinked at him, a horrified look on her face. “So you’re not in the bakery right now.”

“No, and if I don’t wake up soon, they’ll think I’ve ditched. Pidge, I could lose my job.”

“Then we need to wake you up. Right now.”

“How? Is that even possible?”

“It must be.” Pidge paused, thinking. “Pinch yourself.”

“What?”

“Pinch yourself. It’s what people do to see if they’re dreaming, right? Maybe it’ll work here.”

“Okay… I’ll try it.” He pinched himself gently on the cheek.

“Not like that. Hard.”

He pinched himself again, a little bit harder.

“No, I mean really hard. Let me do it.”

Before Hunk could object, she had grabbed his cheek and locked onto it with a vice grip.

“Ow!” Hunk squeaked. “That really hurt!”

“Never mind that, did it work?”

“Obviously not, because I’m still here. And don’t say you need to try again harder, my cheek hurts enough as it is.”

“Yeah, I pinched you hard enough.” She hesitated. “What else can we try?”

Hunk wasn’t sure how much time passed as they tried different things. Pidge suggested stomping on his foot, or inflicting pain in some other form, but Hunk wouldn’t allow it. They considered finding a stream to splash cold water on him, but didn’t know where they could find one. Then Hunk had the idea of trying to fall asleep in the necklace world. Maybe that would wake him up in real life. He laid down and tried to relax. This was difficult because Pidge couldn’t seem to stop talking to him, flitting around like an anxious bird. Eventually he made her walk away, but he still couldn’t sleep.

Some time later, and still wide awake, he heard her shouting from the distance.

“Hunk! The necklace!”

Now Hunk was really annoyed. He sat up. “You just woke me up,” he said, even though he had been nowhere near asleep.

“Wait Hunk, listen,” she said, kneeling down beside him. “How could we forget! You just need to take the necklace off!”

Hunk blinked at her, then down at the necklace. “We are such idiots,” he marveled. He grabbed the necklace and started to pull it off his head. He got as far as his ears when it stopped. There was nothing there to stop it, it just stopped. He pulled harder, but the necklace wouldn’t budge. He looked at Pidge with confusion that bordered on panic.

“I can’t take it off! It’s stuck!”

“Let me try,” said Pidge, stepping forward and taking hold of the necklace. She grabbed it and yanked upwards.

“Ow!” Hunk screamed. “You’re hurting me!” The chain of the necklace was yanking on the back of his neck, and it felt like the skin was getting pulled off.

Rather than make Pidge stop, Hunk’s shout made her pull all the harder and Hunk screamed louder. “Pidge! Fucking stop!” Pidge dropped the necklace and backed away hurriedly, looking shocked and scared.

Hunk flopped  on the ground and rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m stuck here,” he said in disbelief. “I’m really stuck here.”

Pidge looked down at him, but said nothing. The tears welled in Hunk’s eyes all at once, and then he was crying, lying on the ground in this strange world and absolutely, hopelessly stuck. Pidge stepped close again, sat down next to him and put her hand on his shoulder. “It’ll be ok,” she said in a gentle voice. “I don’t know how, but it will.”

Hunk just kept crying; he couldn’t stop it, and he didn’t want to.  And Pidge was here, which helped, though after a while she seemed to get awkward.. 

“Should I let go?” Pidge said.

“No, please hold on.”

So they sat there together, just staring off into the distance. Hunk lost all sense of time, and the sun moved across the sky.

Some time later - it could have been an hour, or it could have been three - Hunk saw a familiar sparkle in the air. The white fog gathered around him. He turned to say goodbye to Pidge, but before he could, everything had gone white, and then he was in the bakery.

He slipped off the crate and fell to the ground with a clatter.

As he was picking himself up, Joel burst in. “Where were you?” he gasped frantically.

“I was right here,” Hunk said, getting to his feet; he was sore all over. “I was just asleep.”

“No you weren’t. I checked this spot like five times. Hunk, you were gone for three hours, where were you?”

Hunk froze. He didn’t know what he could possibly say. Once again, he couldn’t tell the truth, but he couldn’t come up with a lie either. “I can’t tell you,” he finally said, and it sounded absolutely pathetic.

Joel glared at him. “You can’t  _ tell _ me!? You’d better have a better answer for Griselda, or you’re probably gonna get fired. Come on, man, just tell me, where were you?”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” Hunk said miserably.

“What I can’t believe is that you ditched, but you did,” Joel said stubbornly.

“I don’t know what to say. I can’t tell you.”

“Fine. It was nice knowing you,” Joel said, turning abruptly and slamming the door behind him.

As it turned out, Joel was right, and Hunk got fired on the spot when he went out to the front of the shop, where Griselda was absolutely livid.

Shit, what was he going to do now? He really needed this job, and he could never use Griselda as a reference if he applied somewhere else.

But then, he thought of Pidge, he was sure she would have an idea. He would ask her tonight.

 

“What happened at the bakery?” Pidge said, the moment they both appeared. “Was it okay?”

“No, it wasn’t okay at all. I got fired.”

“Oh Hunk.” Her face softened, and she stepped close, like she was going to reach for him. “I’m so sorry.”

He shook his head. “I don’t know what I’m going to do. I kinda hoped you might have some ideas.”

“I don’t know. I can’t think of something on the spot like this, but I’ll think about it. But, Hunk, there’s something I need to tell you.”

He didn’t like her tone, it made him nervous all over again. “What is it?”

“I think the necklace world might be dangerous.”

“Dangerous how?”

“If our bodies disappear in the real world, maybe they appear in this world. I mean we already suspect that this is a real alternate universe. If that’s true, and our bodies are really here, that means if we die here--”

“We die in real life.” Hunk finished for her.

“Yeah. Or worse, we could just disappear and no one would know what happened to us.”

“That’s terrible.” Hunk shuddered. “But look, this place seems pretty harmless so far.”

“So far,” Pidge agreed. “But we don’t know what’s out there. What if we get to the tree and there’s something there? Something that can hurt us?”

“I guess you’re right, it’s possible this place could be dangerous. So what do we do about it?”

She swallowed hard.  “We need to wake up and never come back here.”

“You think so? You’re that scared?”

“Yes.”

“Then why did you even come here tonight?”

“I had to warn you.”

“But we’ve only ever come to this place together. Maybe if you don’t come, then neither could I.”

“We don’t know that. And also, I couldn’t just disappear from your life and make you wonder what happened. You might be worried about me, or think that I rejected you.”

Hunk remembered how badly it had stung when he thought she had stood him up at the park.  “That’s true. Honestly, I probably would have thought that you hated me.”

“See, I couldn’t just not come back.  I don’t want you to think I hate you.”

“I see,” Hunk said. His heart warmed a little bit at the thought that she had done something frightening and possibly dangerous to protect his feelings.

“But we can never come back again,” She said. “Do you see that now?”

“I do. But I don’t want to never see you again.”

“Neither do I. But if you died because of coming to see me, it would kill me.”

Hunk considered that for a second. “Yeah, I feel the same way.”

“So you agree we can never come back?”

Hunk sighed. “I do.”

“Good,” she said, sounding impossibly sad.

“But there might be a problem.”

“What’s that?”

“The night we couldn’t meet in real life, I was so angry I didn’t wear the necklace to sleep. But then I couldn’t sleep and I felt an urge to put the necklace on. What if we can’t keep the necklaces off? What if we’re addicted to this place?”

Pidge though for a moment. “I have an idea for that.”

“Yeah?”

“When we got the necklaces we were in the same place at the same time in our two different universes. I have a feeling that if we both go back there at the same time and put down the necklaces, they’ll just go away, just like how they appeared.”

“That’s an idea.” Hunk considered. “And somehow it seems right to me. Like, I know it will work, but I don’t know how I know.”

“Yeah, me too.”

“So we’re doing it? We’re putting the necklaces in the park at the same time?”

“Yes,” Pidge agreed. “And we should do it as soon as possible. Definitely before we go to sleep tomorrow night.”

“Definitely.”

“Should we say eight pm?”

Hunk’s heart thumped uncomfortably in his chest.  “We had bad luck with eight pm last time. Let’s say nine?”

“Okay, it’s a date. But you know, not a date, date,” Pidge trailed off awkwardly.

“I know.” Hunk turned away. He thought he might cry.

Pidge didn’t say anything, but he could hear her feet moving, rustling in the grass.

“So this is goodbye forever?” he asked, turning back towards her.

“Yeah, it is, or it will be, whenever we wake up.” She let that hang in the air.

“What do we do now?” Hunk said finally.

“Let’s keep walking towards the tree. It’s probably safe to go a little bit farther.”

“I think so. Let’s do it.”

So they walked towards the tree, and were amazed to find that after all this time it finally seemed to be getting closer. Maybe they would even get there! Hunk let himself start to get excited. He turned to Pidge and she looked eager too. He smiled at her; they didn’t need to explain what they were excited about, they both knew.

They walked for a while longer, saying nothing. The tree gradually got closer, but was still far away. Hunk couldn’t bring himself to say anything; nothing seemed right.

When the world started going to white, Hunk accidentally said what he always said. “See you next time.” As soon as he said it, he remembered there would be no next time and tears welled instantly in his eyes.

“Hope so,” Pidge said, her voice cracking a little. And then she was gone.

 

Hunk sat up in bed. It was the middle of the night, and he knew he wouldn’t be able to sleep again that night. He got up, took off the necklace, and set it on the desk. Then he walked out to the living room and put the TV on quietly so he wouldn’t wake up Lance. Anything to distract him from the thought that he would never see Pidge again.

As it turns out, he did fall asleep, though he only realized it when Lance shook him awake.

“Hunk! Wake up, you’re late for work.”

It took a moment for his brain to catch up. “I’m not late. I got fired.”

“You what?  _ You _ got fired? How? And why didn’t you tell me?”

“I’m sorry, I had a lot on my mind.”

“Okay, but why didn’t you tell me?”

Hunk stared at him, searching for something to say. “Lance, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. And I’m sorry I’ve been so weird lately.” He had to force the words out. “But I think things will get more normal soon.”

“Hunk, what has been going on with you right now?”

“It has to do with a girl, and it’s not going well.” That was all Hunk could safely say.  If he said anything about Pidge, he’d just start crying.

“But I thought that was going well.”

“It was,” said Hunk miserably.

“Do you need a hug?” Lance asked, hesitantly.

“Yes.” Hunk would never pass up one of Lance’s hugs.

Lance reached down to pull Hunk into a sitting position then flopped down on the couch next to him and enveloped him in a huge embrace.

“I don’t give as good hugs as you do,” said Lance, “but I’ll give you the best I’ve got.”

“Thank you,” said Hunk gratefully. For a moment he gave up on trying not to think about Pidge, then broke into tears. He was sobbing, and he was kind of surprised that it hurt this much. Sure, they had been good friends, but now he felt like his world was falling apart. Had he really cared this much about her?

He cried for a long time, he didn’t know how long. Finally he ran out of tears, and pulled back and looked at Lance.

“Cheer up buddy,” Lance said with a sad smile. “Maybe you’ll get her back.”

“No, she’s gone forever. I’ll never see her again and there’s nothing I can do about it.”

“She’s not dead, is she?” Lance sounded suddenly even more worried.

“Not, she not dead. Just gone. Forever,” said Hunk in a flat tone.

They sat there a while longer, saying nothing.

“Well, it’s time for me to go to work,” Lance said finally. “But are you gonna be okay? I can call in if you need me.”

“No, I’ll be okay. You should go. Don’t get fired like I did.”

“Okay,” said Lance, though he looked uncertain.

“And, Lance?”

“Yeah?”

“I’ll be out tonight around nine, but I won’t be out too late.”

“Okay, thanks for telling me.” With one last sad glance, Lance turned to go.

 

Hunk looked at his watch. He was twenty minutes early, but he was going to wait until exactly nine o’clock to give up the necklace. He surveyed the park and found what he thought was the exact spot where he had bumped into Pidge. He had plenty of time, so he took a seat on a park bench.

He took the necklace out of his pocket and looked it. He wasn’t going to risk wearing it ever again. It really was beautiful. The silver glinted in the anemic light of the street lamps, and the lion was fierce yet graceful.

At three minutes to nine, he stood up, walked to the spot, and looked at his watch until it was ten seconds to nine. He counted down the last ten seconds and then let the necklace slip out of his hand and fall to the ground.

It seemed to fall too slowly, almost as though something was trying to hold it up. And then before it hit the ground, it vanished. Nothing happened, and Hunk stared forlornly at the spot for a long minute, but then, suddenly, there was a shimmer in the air in front of him and Pidge appeared.

Hunk was so surprised he said exactly what he was thinking. “Can I kiss you?”   He was shocked at his boldness, but he couldn’t un-say it now.

But Pidge didn’t look shocked; she looked relieved. Before Hunk could even wonder what that meant she stepped towards him, put her hands on his arms, and craned her neck upwards, reaching for his face with hers.

Now Hunk was even more surprised, but he didn’t hesitate. He bent down until his face was right next to hers, and they floated there, hovering a breath apart, until Hunk pressed ever so slightly forward. Their lips touched, feather-light, and it was everything he didn’t know he had ever wanted.

Hunk lost track of time as the kiss stretched on, he thought of all the good times he had had with with her, and rejoiced that she was here with him.

When the kiss finally ended they stepped back from each other, looked into each other’s eyes, and then simultaneously burst into laughter. As their giggles died out they beamed at each other, and then Hunk stepped in for another hug.

And stumbled into nothing as Pidge vanished before his eyes.

Long moments passed and Hunk stood there frozen, mind blank. He could barely believe what had just happened, and wasn’t even sure it was real. He finally unfroze and looked around the park as if he would find Pidge, even though in his heart he knew that he wouldn’t. He would never see Pidge again. But at least they had shared that kiss.

He suddenly found that he couldn’t stand being in that park for one more moment. He didn’t know where to go, so he just started walking. He walked until he didn’t know where he was, and then walked some more. After about an hour he finally remembered he had told Lance he wouldn’t be too late so he got out his phone to find the way home, and turned around to start the slow trudge back.

He didn’t know what he was going to say to Lance. He needed to talk with his best friend about this, but he couldn’t tell everything because Lance would think he was crazy. He would figure something out, though, because there was no way he could keep this to himself. He’d suffered his first heartbreak, and a terrible one at that.  He needed to be able to lean on someone if he was going to weather this.

At least they’d had that one kiss.

 


End file.
